Barry Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice

Next up: Hearing on a possible retrial by U.S. prosecutors

Lance Williams, California Watch

Published
4:00 am PDT, Wednesday, April 13, 2011

(04-13) 19:22 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds, the former Giants outfielder and baseball's all-time home-run leader, was convicted Wednesday of obstruction of justice for giving evasive answers to a federal grand jury that questioned him about his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The jury that convicted Bonds in federal court in San Francisco deadlocked on three perjury charges. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston declared a mistrial on those counts.

The jury returned its verdict after a three-week trial. The panel began its deliberations Friday.

Illston set a May 20 hearing, in part to determine whether the government wants a retrial on the perjury counts. Bonds' lawyer, Allen Ruby, said the defense will ask the judge to throw out the verdict, saying a conviction for obstruction was inconsistent with the jury's deadlock on the perjury counts.

The lone conviction came on a count charging Bonds with intentionally giving evasive, false or misleading testimony. In response to a question about whether his trainer gave him injectable drugs, Bonds gave a rambling answer, saying he was a "celebrity child, not just in baseball, by my own instincts."

Deliberate interference

Barry Bonds waves to a supporter while his attorney Allen Ruby speaks after Bonds was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice at his perjury trial at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The jury deadlocked on three other counts. less

Barry Bonds waves to a supporter while his attorney Allen Ruby speaks after Bonds was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice at his perjury trial at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in San ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image
1of/22

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 22

Barry Bonds waves to a supporter while his attorney Allen Ruby speaks after Bonds was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice at his perjury trial at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The jury deadlocked on three other counts. less

Barry Bonds waves to a supporter while his attorney Allen Ruby speaks after Bonds was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice at his perjury trial at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse in San ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Barry Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice

1 / 22

Back to Gallery

Bonds' answer was obstruction of justice, the jury ruled, a deliberate attempt to interfere with the grand jury's probe.

Bonds, 46, showed no reaction to the verdict. He left court without saying anything. A sentencing date was not set, and Bonds remains free. He could be sentenced to two years in prison under federal guidelines, although some legal experts say he is likely to receive no more than house arrest.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said the trial was about truth and justice.

"In the United States, taking an oath and promising to testify truthfully is a serious matter," she said in a statement. "We cannot ignore those who choose instead to obstruct justice."

Outside court, jurors said they unanimously believed Bonds was deliberately evasive in response to questions about whether he had ever been injected with banned drugs.

They deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting Bonds on a perjury charge based on Bonds' claims that he had never received an injection from anyone other than his physician.

Jurors said they deadlocked in favor of acquittal on the other two perjury charges, which were based on Bonds' denials that he had knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone.

Original testimony

The charges stemmed from Bonds' testimony Dec. 4, 2003, before the grand jury that investigated steroid dealing at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, in which the Giants outfielder denied that he had knowingly used steroids.

He said his trainer, confessed steroid dealer Greg Anderson, had supplied him only with flaxseed oil and arthritis cream - not the BALCO designer steroids "the clear" and "the cream."

Bonds was indicted in 2007, two months after he set baseball's career home run mark at age 43. He hasn't played baseball since the charges were filed.

In the trial, prosecutors called more than two dozen witnesses to prove their case that Bonds was a secret steroid user who simply couldn't bear to confess his use of multiple banned drugs.

In his final argument, prosecutor Jeff Nedrow catalogued the government's evidence of Bonds' drug use.

A test of a urine sample that Bonds gave to baseball's steroid control program in 2003 showed that the ballplayer was using "the clear" and other drugs. On a secret recording made in the Giants' clubhouse, Anderson described the banned drugs he said he was giving Bonds.

Kathy Hoskins, Bonds' former personal shopper, testified that she saw Anderson inject Bonds in the stomach in 2002 with what prosecutors said was human growth hormone.

Two other former confidants of Bonds - Steve Hoskins, Kathy Hoskins' brother and Bonds' longtime business manager, and Kimberly Bell, the ballplayer's girlfriend for nine years - said he told them about his steroid use.

Former Giants trainer Stan Conte testified that Bonds had told him in 2003 that he was aware Anderson was selling steroids. Former Oakland A's and New York Yankees player Jason Giambi, now with the Colorado Rockies, and three former baseball players testified that Anderson had sold them banned drugs, including "the cream" and "the clear."

Aggressive questioning

Bonds himself didn't testify and the defense didn't call any witnesses. But his legal team, led by Ruby, put on a determined defense, repeatedly persuading the judge to pare back the evidence that prosecutors could use in the trial. And they aggressively cross-examined the government's witnesses, claiming that Bonds was being framed.

Defense lawyer Cristina Arguedas kept Bell on the witness stand for more than four hours. She portrayed Bell as a jilted lover who tried to profit from her broken relationship with Bonds by posing nude for Playboy and pitching a tell-all book about him.

Ruby cross-examined Steve Hoskins for nearly as long. He accused the business manager of selling fake Bonds memorabilia and keeping the money, and charged that Hoskins had trumped up the steroid accusations to deflect an FBI probe of the alleged fraud.

The defense made little headway in cross-examining Kathy Hoskins about an incident in Bonds' bedroom in 2002: She said she saw Anderson inject Bonds in the abdomen with what prosecutors said was human growth hormone.

Bonds told her the shot was "undetectable," a "little something-something" for an upcoming Giants road trip, she testified.

Anderson refused to testify against Bonds and spent the trial in federal prison for contempt of court, the fourth time he had been imprisoned in connection with BALCO.

In a ruling that helped Bonds, Illston decreed that without the trainer's testimony, the government could not use what it characterized as significant additional evidence of Bonds' drug use, including doping calendars and private steroid screens that allegedly showed he was using banned drugs for years.

The trial itself was as much about how Bonds will be regarded in baseball history as it was about basic questions of crime and punishment.

Experts say it is not certain that he will serve any prison time. In 2008, juries convicted an Olympic track coach and an elite bicycle racer of lying about steroids, and Illston sentenced them to house arrest.

But the guilty verdict damages Bonds' place in baseball history and his chances of being elected to the Hall of Fame. One of the greatest hitters of all time, Bonds holds baseball's single season and career records for home runs, and he won the Most Valuable Player award an unprecedented seven times. The verdict brings down the curtain on the wide-ranging federal investigation into performance-enhancing drugs and elite sports that centered on BALCO, which began in 2002.

The probe started when federal agents received tips that Anderson and Victor Conte, BALCO's founder, were dealing steroids. It became public in 2003, when Internal Revenue Service agents raided BALCO and Anderson's Burlingame condominium.

In the years that followed, six steroid dealers and four sports figures, including Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, were convicted of BALCO-related crimes. The case led Congress to convene televised hearings on steroids in baseball and toughen anti-steroid laws.

Convincing jury

What prosecutors had to prove to convict Bonds:

Perjury: That he testified falsely before the grand jury and knew his testimony was false and "material" to the grand jury. "Material" means the statement was capable of influencing the grand jury's decisions in its criminal investigation.

Obstruction of justice: That he deliberately impeded, or tried to impede, the grand jury's investigation by giving testimony that was intentionally evasive, false or misleading.